A bit of an unusual article, but one that I have been meaning to write for a while.
Despite that fact I am a Manchester United fan, I live in North Leeds in a town that is very much a Leeds United strong hold. Most of my close mates are Leeds fans and many of them are season ticket holders. Over the years I have got to know some of the lads that they have met through their support of Leeds and count these people as my friends.
I must add here that fighting has never really been my thing and that I have never understood lads going to the footy, with the intention of getting into a scrap with the opposition’s ‘firm’. But some of the lads I have gotten to know are/have been part of the Service Crew and have been involved in plenty of scraps over the years.
One of these lads, let’s call him Dave, has recently turned 40 and has gone through a bit of a personal journey in the last few years. He has gradually changed his life and become much more calm and peaceful. Perhaps even a little spiritual. I was talking to him recently and he was telling me about how much he regretted a lot of the things he did in the early years and especially the violence that he was involved in. He said he didn’t even like football really and just initially went along to hang about with his mates. Then they got into the fighting side of it.
A few weeks later I was talking to his older brother about it all, and he basically said that Dave was groomed by older members of the service crew. At 15 years old they were sending him (and another lad I know) into the opposition’s fans pubs as the first wave, with the older lads following in afterwards. This will sound familiar to anyone who has watched Football Factory.
I don’t really know what the point of this article is, but I just thought it was quite interesting. Imagine being one of these older men and thinking its ok to send kids into the lion’s den like that. I wonder if there are any initiatives out there trying to prevent kids from getting involved in hooliganism?
Football, hooligans and grooming
posted 6 days, 14 hours ago
The Zenit fan should just have questioned Osimhen's professionalism and then we'd see Red Russian's dormant violent side being awakened.
posted 6 days, 12 hours ago
Seen a fair deal of football aggro back in the day, (70s and 80s) Not much at Old Trafford as it hardly ever happened, You can name the games on one hand that it kicked off at OT over that period which have become folklore. Attending away games was different.... it happened nearly everywhere United went in them days. Uniteds hooligan fearsome reputation proceeded the Red Army so United away days were always a red rag to the firms. But you felt safe in numbers as Uniteds away support was so vast (before all ticket games) it was like a scene from Ben Hurr descending from over the horizon. Of course if you were looking for real trouble you would know how and where to find it anway, It was often the Dibble that looked forward to United coming to their town and would enjoy the aggro they gave and got as much as the nutcases. Had a few run ins with the Police. Got attacked a couple times by them baztards.
posted 6 days, 12 hours ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 JA606 Class Act (U2462)
posted 1 hour, 44 minutes ago
The Zenit fan should just have questioned Osimhen's professionalism and then we'd see Red Russian's dormant violent side being awakened.
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I have no doubt he wouldn't have bothered to think about Osimhen's professionalism before proceeding to racially abuse him, unfortunately.
posted 6 days, 3 hours ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 8 hours, 58 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 JA606 Class Act (U2462)
posted 1 hour, 44 minutes ago
The Zenit fan should just have questioned Osimhen's professionalism and then we'd see Red Russian's dormant violent side being awakened.
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I have no doubt he wouldn't have bothered to think about Osimhen's professionalism before proceeding to racially abuse him, unfortunately.
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How very sad that's someone's go to 'argument'. We should really be past that kind of thing by now in 2025.
We're not though as I often see at work. We post social medi posts about Pride, Black History Month etc and the amount of abuse we get is incredible. We have to hide loads of comments. People are so stupid though they'll even comment from their own business accounts or from a personal account that tells you exactly where they work. I have no problem in stating I've made it my business to inform their employers of their online behaviour!
posted 6 days, 3 hours ago
Agree with that, Diafol.
Just to point out that my Zenit encounter was in the 90s, so it's statistically probable that the hooligan in question has long since drunk himself to death.
posted 6 days, 2 hours ago
Seen a fair few first hand examples of this through watching both Chelsea & Pompey back in the day....
Chelsea had the Headhunters & Pompey had the 6:57 crew (named after a train)
Watched Pompey from age 13-16 & certainly didn't get involved but i've seen it close up - Millwall was always the prized match
Used to travel to away games a lot in the 80's following Chelsea when you could literally walk in on the turnstiles for little money just about anywhere
Derby at the Baseball Ground was very bad....seats thrown & allsorts of street fighting...West Brom was another that comes to mind.
Seen some big fights on the tube too (West Ham comes to mind at Earls Court station....most of these guys are grandfathers now & many probably had good jobs back in the day.
I was in the Armed Forces then....getting involved was not an option
posted 6 days, 1 hour ago
comment by Sheriff JW Pepper (U1007)
posted 47 minutes ago
Seen a fair few first hand examples of this through watching both Chelsea & Pompey back in the day....
Chelsea had the Headhunters & Pompey had the 6:57 crew (named after a train)
Watched Pompey from age 13-16 & certainly didn't get involved but i've seen it close up - Millwall was always the prized match
Used to travel to away games a lot in the 80's following Chelsea when you could literally walk in on the turnstiles for little money just about anywhere
Derby at the Baseball Ground was very bad....seats thrown & allsorts of street fighting...West Brom was another that comes to mind.
Seen some big fights on the tube too (West Ham comes to mind at Earls Court station....most of these guys are grandfathers now & many probably had good jobs back in the day.
I was in the Armed Forces then....getting involved was not an option
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I think that the emergence of camera phones, social media and cameras located within towns and cities has helped to reduce much of the trouble. People with office jobs or in the forces can't risk losing their jobs and its so easy to identify people these days.
posted 6 days, 1 hour ago
Most travelling fans back in the day were usually full of beer. This made you very brave. With United Red Army although you wernt part of any organised 'firm'... after 6 pints of lager on the train or in the back of your Salford Van Hire getting there then in the pub before the game ad marching to the ground under escort made you very tribal. Dont pizz in the gardens the Police would say... so people pizzed in the gardens ..so it inevitably all kicked off..and beered up fans tended to stand their ground in numbers. Fans in them days were treated lke animals..so they behaved like animals
posted 6 days ago
comment by RB&W - Our representative on the pitch (U21434)
posted 33 minutes ago
Most travelling fans back in the day were usually full of beer. This made you very brave. With United Red Army although you wernt part of any organised 'firm'... after 6 pints of lager on the train or in the back of your Salford Van Hire getting there then in the pub before the game ad marching to the ground under escort made you very tribal. Dont pizz in the gardens the Police would say... so people pizzed in the gardens ..so it inevitably all kicked off..and beered up fans tended to stand their ground in numbers. Fans in them days were treated lke animals..so they behaved like animals
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spot on...herded into pens in places
posted 5 days, 22 hours ago
I can see how some may get sucked into it, more so i think if you attended away games.
For me personally it was the one thing in my life at the time that I could identify with and feel part of. I had just left London and moved to an area that I absolutely hated, not really accepted because of "where i had come from" in what was a fairly wealthy part of Surrey.
Hated school, for similar reasons had lost all my mates from West London and was in a fairly low place during the first year or two there.
Started making the journey up to the Bridge on my own probably 15 or so probably the Eddie Mcreadie period or just before and absolutely loved it. Got to know other supporters going up on the train and just loved the feeling of "belonging" on the terraces in the Shed.
A lot of bravado for sure joining in all the chanting and etc but was fairly streetwise from a young age so never got caught up in the stuff going on around the ground just enjoyed the buzz inside the ground.
Remember sat reading my programme and getting run off the terraces early one at home to WHU but never caught up in anything directly apart from that.
all changed though with the violence increasingly finding you whether you went looking or not.
Was coming home from a home game against Norwich I think it was and was a bit later coming back, was with 5 or 6 other Chelsea lads and got ambushed in the waiting room at Richmond Station by a vicious little Tottenham firm of 10 or so.
Knew I was in trouble if I went down but instinct kicked in and literally fought for my life to get off the platform and up the stairs.
Took a clump on the back of the head from one of those old wooden station stop signs and lost my jacket and all the coins I was carrying but could have ended up stabbed or severely beaten.
Bumped into another guy in Richmond High Street who I knew by sight as a Chelsea fan but wore no colours who had exited the station when the Spurs crew arrived. Gave me the bus fare to get back to his home station 4/5 stops down the line and then picked up the train home.
That was it for me had a lucky escape and thought its just not worth it any more took a brake for a couple of seasons after that.